Alinghi and SNG RC talk about 33rd America's Cup at Multihulls conf.

by Jean Philippe Jobé on 13 Mar 2010 There is an exhibition on the evolution of the multihulls in Geneva. It covers more than 30 years of development of this type of sailboats on Lake Geneva and ends with Alinghi 5 that sailed against the American trimaran in Valencia.

At this Multihull conference Alinghi's builder, crew and Race Commitee talked about the Swiss boat, the AC33 series and Harold Bennett

As you all know USA 17 won and the cup is now in California, but sailing will continue here, one of the Silicon Valleys of multihull development.

In the context of that exhibition, a conference on the future of this type of crafts and the impact of the recent America's Cup was organized. The following speakers were present:

- Bertrand Cardis, owner of Décision SA, builder of the Décision 35 and the Alinghi 5 hulls
- Nicolas Grange, president of the local Multihull association
- Pierre-Yves Jorand, from the Team Alinghi
- Bernard Schopfer, author of a book on the same theme, who organized the debate itself

Some of the interesting comments that were made follow and I apologize in advance for any translation errors as the debate took place in French.

Question: If you could select the defining part of this last AC campaign, which one would it be?

- PYJ: The first 10 minutes of the first race when USA 17 comes from behind and we all realize that there is a significant speed difference; 'we could not do anything about it'.

- BC: the fact that two multihulls were competing in an AC, but also including A 5 first tests here on the lake.

Question: A wing for A 5?

- It was studied; Duncan Maclane (designer of the Cogito wing cat) was one of the Alinghi team members. But in the end, and in the words of Bertrand Cardis, there was not enough time to build and test properly. The fact that we stopped building for four months because of the legal aspects did not help. Interestingly PYJ mentioned that changing from the small first mast to the longer one did improve on the acceleration but not so much on the overall speed.

Question: Why was USA 17 more powerful?
- BC: Because of the wing and the way it was designed with this relatively important slot between the mast and the flaps. Also because of the size of the platform, which was built and measured as a tri but sailed as a cat on a much longer LWL?
- PYJ: You also have to remember that their boat was in the water nearly one year before A5 and they were able to test and modify it several times before shipping it to the venue.

Question: Which boat for AC 34?
- No hard news from the BOR camp. PYJ would like or bet on MH with a box rule (60 feet?)
- Nicolas Grange would bet also on multihulls.
- BC did mention that big multihull build at the limit of weight would always be at the limit of breakage, and alarms would ring as they did in race 2 in Valencia. He would also push towards multihulls on a smaller platform (eg.60 feet).

Question: Which new technology might we see here on Lake Geneva?

- The wing would not be practical, but do remember we saw Stars and Stripes with Dennis Conner here in 1989 when a new time reference was established. But that could lead us to an intermediate idea of 'thick' sails that approach a wing profile but which are soft and can be lowered; the word inflatable sails has been mentioned. Kites as well, but I personally can't see a 500 plus boat race like the Bol d'Or allowing kites!
- Fiber optics and sensors could find a way to our local racing boats.
- After now seven years of domination by the Decision 35, will these be beaten by new prototypes, some of them sporting foils like SyZ & co or the Mirabaud LX?

Later a few questions were asked by the public, one in reference to the S foils that appeared at the initial launch of Alinghi 5 but were not used in Valencia. PY Jorand did answer saying that in certain conditions they created too much lift and that on one occasion they had a close call in Genoa. Next, straight boards were developed and tested and also a small S pair appeared late in Valencia. For a better and safer handling these last pairs were used in the races. All that rejoins the comment that time and especially testing time was scarce.

What about A5 in the future? The boat is kept in a tent in Valencia (not by the Darsena though), some sailing exhibitions or on the ground exhibits were mentioned, but no firm decision yet.

Aside of the official subject of the conference, I took the opportunity to chat with Nicolas Grange, some of our readers might remember that he was one of the SNG officials in the Racing Committee in Valencia and was present on the RC boat at the start of the second race.

He basically confirms the fact that Harold Bennett the contracted PRO did start the racing sequence basically ignoring the opinion of the other members of the RC who asked him not to lower the postponement flag.

He also confirmed that prior to that, there were conversation between the RC boat and Alinghi.

It all boils down to the two different interpretations of who decides what and when. Each member of the RC has one vote. There were three members from the SNG, defender and organizer of the race as per the DOG, each with one vote and the PRO that has two votes.

So if you apply the fact that decisions even on the water must be taken by the RC and a majority, the race would have been postponed as the conditions were right on the limit, especially the sea state (yes I know you could argue about that as well).

If one believes that on the water the PRO rules regardless of the advice of the RC then Harold Bennett was right, his only solution was summoning other knowledgeable persons to run the starting sequence.

All that said, and as Nicolas mentioned, it would not have changed the final outcome itself.